Finally got mom to the hospital and its been an uphill battle. Long story short is we cannot care for her at home anymore and the hospital is insisting she be released to our custody. I have tried reaching out to the social worker and unfortunately we keep missing each others phone calls but there is no way she can be released at least to our care. I know when this all COVID started they were accepting patients just made them quarantine for 14 days but now it seems like they are refusing new patients unless this is just in our local area... I am at my wits end on what to do next and about to lose my job trying to figure it out. Any suggestions?
Just be honest with the social worker and tell her you can't take care of mom at home, she is obligated to find a safe place for mom to go. You will need to give permission for her to basically 'blanket' your state with referrals to nursing home so that a place can be found. Right now your mom is taking up a hospital bed that is likely needed by people with more severe health problems than needing supervision or SNF placement. We are short beds and staff and getting overloaded with Covid patients.
We have had a lot of families basically using the hospital as a dumping ground for their parents when they can no longer take care of them at home. Many times, there is nothing medically wrong with these people, they just need to go to a nursing home and instead of families working on this themselves, they just leave the people at the hospital and say 'I can't take there of them'. It's very frustrating because then we end up with someone in the hospital for several weeks that really doesn't need to be there, taking up a needed bed, losing money on that bed or person every day as they aren't being medically treated for anything, while we arrange for care that the family could have done on their own.
I care for a parent so I understand the issues and stresses that come along with it but family's could do more legwork on their own when facing this issue instead of just dumping this on the hospital.
And then, so often people just don't know where to begin. Literally do not know what step one is. To be fair, how would they?
"So... what exactly IS a 'package of care'?" said one son who wanted to pick my brains, as he put it.
Do you think it's a situation where you could have her at home if she had an aide to help some of the time, especially if you have to work? You should not have to lose your job over this.